JEONJU IFF has long supported independent and provocative films with new perspectives. While Expanded Cinema section focuses on formal experimental films in this context, Frontline section consists of works that make more daring and challenging attempts in terms of content. This year, the audience will meet a total of 12 titles, two more than last year, with even more diverse themes.
Christophe Cognet´s From Where They Stood is a documentary about the incredible fact that the Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps during World War II photographed themselves and the camps to document their realities. Their photographs make us look back on the tragic history of that time. Meanwhile, The Exiles, a project initiated by documentarian Christine Choy in 1989 but left incomplete until picked up by Ben Klein and Violet Columbus, tracks three exiled dissidents from China’s Tiananmen Square massacre. This year’s Frontline features three films set in China that focus on the country’s past and present. The second film about China, H6, tells the story of the Sixth People´s Hospital, the largest hospital in Shanghai, and its patients, while the third film, All About My Sisters, depicts the tragic reality of China through the story of a girl returning to her parents who had abandoned her due to the one-child policy, demanding that they take her back.
One of the main points of focus of the Frontline section is the situation in Palestine, which is featured in The Devil´s Drivers. It describes the dire life of drivers who illegally transport Palestinian workers working illegally in Israeli-occupied territories every day. Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege is another documentary that records the lives of Palestinian refugees living in isolation and misery. Then, there are films that look at the battlefield from another perspective. A.I. at War is a philosophical film that questions human nature and the future of mankind, as the director travels with an A.I. robot to conflict areas such as Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, as well as Paris, France, where the Yellow Vests uprising is taking place. Another film that provides food for thought is The Gig Is Up, which looks at the shadows of gig platform workers at companies such as Uber, Deliveroo, and Amazon, and have been receiving more spotlight in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, Frontline section will also introduce feature films that feel radical, raw and rough in their intensity, including two Spanish films WHO´S STOPPING US, which tells the stories of young people born in the 21st century, and The Sacred Spirit, which deals with the disappearance of a girl and an association of ufologists; a Brazilian film Dry Ground Burning; and Neptune Frost, which was co-produced by Rwanda and the United States.
Written by Programmer CHUN Jinsu
